THE POOR GENTLEMAN.

by

HENDRIK CONSCIENCE

Author of _The Curse of the Village_, _The Happiness of Being Rich_,
_Veva_, _The Lion of Flanders_, _Count Hugo of Craenhove_, _Wooden
Clara_, _Ricketicketack_, _The Demon of Gold_, _The Village Inn-Keeper_,
_The Conscript_, _Blind Rosa_, _The Amulet_, _The Miser_, _The
Fisherman's Daughter_, etc.

Translated Expressly for this Edition.







Preface to the American Edition.


The story of "THE POOR GENTLEMAN," now given in our language for the
first time, is one of the series in which M. Conscience has delineated
various grades of female character in positions of trial. In "The
Village Innkeeper" he has shown the weaker traits of woman distracted
between an inborn sense of propriety and a foolish ambition for high,
life. In the "Conscript" his heroine displays the nobler virtues of
uncorrupted humble life; and, with few characters, taken from the lowest